The Real Deal Podcast
Unlock the door to success in the dynamic world of real estate with your hosts, William Gomez & Alfredo Madrid. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of loan officers and real estate agents, sharing their triumphs, challenges, and invaluable insights. Your key to navigating the ever-evolving landscape of real estate starts here.
The Real Deal Podcast
#9 Sales, Social Media, and Success with May West
In this episode, we are joined by May West, an influencer in social media and real estate here in Tulsa. We're talking about those moments in sales when rejection hits hard, especially from friends and clients we've leaned on. But May's here to show us that those tough times are golden opportunities for personal growth.
From her early days in telemarketing to becoming a social media master in the real estate game, May's journey is one of resilience and reinvention. She's not holding back on sharing the ups and downs, and there are plenty of insights. We'll explore how mastering digital marketing can turn the tide in business and why those little gestures like quarterly pop-bys and personalized gifts can make all the difference in keeping clients coming back for more.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/itsmaywest?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
It's kind of crazy to me when people get into sales and they're like, well, I don't want to go door knocking, I don't want a cold call, I don't want to do any of this because of the fear of rejection, but you're telling me that that's been your biggest hurdle, that whenever we ask like, hey, what's been your biggest obstacle? And you just put rejection and people when they look at you I don't think that they see that at all. So, on sales and social media, tell me how you overcame that and tell me a little bit about like, about your experience with rejection.
Speaker 2:I think rejection and more so friends not wanting to use me, clients firing me, that type of rejection is. It hurts really bad and I still like mourn, that loss of not being able to help friends and who know I'm capable and all that. So I don't cold call, I don't door knock, I choose not to do that, so I have to fill my, my marketing, with other things, right, um?
Speaker 3:unlock the door to success in the dynamic world of real estate. With your host, William Gomez, in Alfredo Madrid, Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of loan officers and real estate agents, sharing their triumphs, challenges and invaluable insights. Your key to navigating the ever-evolving landscape of real estate starts here here, mae West.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome to the real deal podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. You have been on the willpower twice, once by yourself and then once with Steven Hester and um. And you know, alfredo and I kicked this podcast back in November and this is just strictly with agents and we started off with, you know, top producing agents that we didn't really have like a straight on relationship with, and then so I was like, hey, let's bring on some agents that we work with and I'm excited to pick your brain and not afraid to get to know you a little bit better.
Speaker 4:Yeah, super excited. I've got to know you via will Right, and actually a big thing that we're going to be talking about today is social media, and it's funny how, after seeing somebody so often, you feel like you know, because we've actually only seen each other maybe a handful of times. But when I see you, I'm like, oh, she does the restaurant thing and she does this, and so, yeah, I really have enjoyed your content on social media, which I know we'll discuss today as well too.
Speaker 1:So Matt, you've been licensed for how long?
Speaker 2:This is my fifth year.
Speaker 1:Fifth year and then you're considered a mega producer with Keller Williams. That's what they call their top producing agents. How long have you been a top producer for there?
Speaker 2:I would say three years three years and then.
Speaker 1:So I mean that's pretty impressive because somebody coming in, it takes them a little while to kind of get their feet wet and be able to just get a few deals under their belt. And you came from a job where you were doing well and what was it that made you kind of get into real estate to begin with? Well, back up, what were you doing?
Speaker 2:So I well back up times two. I was doing sales for a telemarketing company sales for a telemarketing company and I was six figure job inside sales and I ended up leaving it because I was a part of a network marketing company and I was doubling my income and it just didn't make sense. Taxes were absolutely horrific. I wanted to enjoy my time, so I did network marketing solely for six months and it got very lonely. I traveled a lot but, like when I was home, it was just like what do you do, and there's only so much you can do to be a part of people's lives, not next to you.
Speaker 2:And so I decided you know, real estate's always been a passion of mine and I really have always wanted to take on real estate. My mom's worked for Keller Williams for about a decade. She works on staff there and I got my real estate license and it's been the best thing ever. The first couple of years I did both network marketing and real estate. Um really built up my business. I was young. I was, you know, late twenties. A lot of my clients have grown up with me, so when I started, not everyone was buying real estate Right, and as I've grown up with my clients. We've not only bought their first home, but we're buying their bigger home when they have kids, and that's really how my business has grown.
Speaker 4:So, on that transition, I hear a lot of people that are doing it to keep their current job, which I think is wise right. Like you, don't want to completely cut off that revenue stream to go to the new one, when what was the ultimate decision to be like okay, I'm done with that. Are you making enough income to completely supplement, or was there a gap there?
Speaker 2:It was the moment I was making more money in real estate than I was in network marketing. I made the decision. It was very scary, but my heart just wasn't in it anymore and I loved, loved, loved, loved everything about real estate and being with my clients and that connection with them. So that was it, and ever since then it was a hundred percent real estate.
Speaker 1:Right, and one of the things that makes you unique is that I feel like we live in a day and age where everybody wants to use social media. They feel like they have to use social media. About 40% of your business comes from social media. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So when did that start? From the very beginning?
Speaker 2:No, because initially I fell into when I was doing network marketing. We did a lot of things online. I was selling makeup, we were doing videos. I kind of became what they call an influencer and I was influencing people to not only buy products but to do this and to buy these clothes and all that. So when I became a realtor, I did not want to mix that.
Speaker 2:I wanted my influencing to be its own business, and it wasn't until about two years ago that I decided why don't we just merge the two? Why don't I become the person for Tulsa that knows everything about Tulsa, get local businesses involved, share local businesses? And so when people are moving to Tulsa, they're like, oh well, I'll just use May, who's already. I'm saving all these videos of these restaurants I want to visit and all these places I want to go. I want to use her as my realtor and it's really paid off. It definitely took consistency. It took about a year and a half to see anything from it, but now it's like once a week I'm getting referrals or messages of like, hey, we're moving to Tulsa or hey, I just love following you and I'd love to use you as my realtor.
Speaker 4:One thing I love that, one thing that I noticed when you shared some of those numbers with us, is that you put that 95 percent of your businesses from referrals and 40 percent of your businesses from social media, which means you consider social media referrals 100% Right, and so I've never looked at it that way, because when I'm getting social media bites, let's call it, or people interested, to me that's like online marketing. It's an online lead, but you're marrying the two so that your content you're giving to the people watching is the same content that you'd give to your circle of influence, right? So tell us a little bit about your approach and your point of view on that. How are you making sure that the referral and a social media inquiry is the same thing?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm very passionate about this topic.
Speaker 4:I love it.
Speaker 2:I, you know, in real estate they always say you know you need to be touch pointing your clients, you need to be revisiting those clients you've already had and how are you communicating with them? Past closing? And I think, real estate, what are you? What are you guys scrolling on every day and if you're seeing my face and my content come up and being able to just like message me back or, you know, say this and know who I am and know I'm going to respond, we start a whole conversation based on something, and that's a way to stay in front of my clients, and so I think it's so important to like continue that. And you know, whenever I'm posting about real estate tagging those past clients, I really want it to be a place where people feel like they can just contact me and my clients know that my contacts, my clients know that I am literally a phone call away for any question, anything at all.
Speaker 4:And it also means that you're treating your followers for the lack of a better word there as friends and family.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. They're my community.
Speaker 1:So three things on that that you hit on. First of all, you said that at first you had it separate like may the realtor, may the influencer. Then you were like let me combine the two. And then that's when you started kind of seeing growth within your business. And then I can, I can think about I know I've already brought up Steven as well. But Steven, for example, whenever he came and took a social media class with me, he was like man, I just don't know what to do to grow.
Speaker 1:Every time I post real estate videos they don't perform well and that's what everybody thinks they need to do. If they think, hey, I'm a plumber, I'm going to do social media for my business, then I have to start posting plumbing videos. If I'm a real estate agent or a lender, I have to start posting videos. And I guess it kind of doesn't help whenever I'm teaching these classes and when you go to my page, it is all about finance and home buying. So they're like it works for Will because he's doing it in the finance realm. But you and Steven are two great examples that you're doing the influence thing. And when I started looking at his stuff I'm like dude, the only videos that you're getting momentum on are the burger videos, so just keep posting food videos, and he started doing that. He grew his account from like 400 followers, uh, in the summer of 2022 to now he's like at 40,000 and and he gave me his numbers and literally like 80% of his business comes from YouTube.
Speaker 2:Tik TOK and Instagram on that. He is a success story and I I do not feel like I'm that successful when it comes to it, but I've worked really hard to grow my following to be only local Tulsa metro area people. I really want to hone in on that, because those are the people that are eventually going to be looking to buy and sell.
Speaker 1:Well, you say he's a success story, but here's the thing that I want to point out that you do is that you're using social media as a tool, but then you're still going door knocking, you're still calling people, you're still sending thank you cards, you're still doing all the things that just about everybody else needs to do to do business. It's not doing social media, and I think that that's the big disconnect.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can't just do social media and call it a day.
Speaker 1:But how many people do you, alfredo, tell you like I want to do social media and they think like, oh, I don't have to do anything else.
Speaker 4:Well, that's that's the thing that I. I mean we could probably spend the entire rest of this podcast on just this topic of how valuable it would be for people. It's that when you start doing this activity on social media like people, don't start lining up at the door. No, Absolutely not, and that's what people believe.
Speaker 4:People think that which is insane, right? Because the thing is is that when we get out of our comfort zone, we say like it's a sacrifice for us. And I think people are like man, if I'm going to put in this work, it must be working, because it's working for me and it's working for Will, so it's going to work for me. And that's not all you're doing. Behind the scenes. There's a lot of stuff going on, lots of follow-up. Will tells me how many DMs he sends per day. All that stuff is intentional stuff. The social media videos and the reels is just a part of the puzzle. Yeah Right, tell us a little bit about what else you do to nurture those leads. What else do you do to nurture that income of?
Speaker 2:So, um, I like to take care of my referral clients, the clients that have, um, already sent me someone else, and I always am doing about quarterly pop buys, so I will like today I brought you guys girl scout cookies and it says you know, no matter how the cookie crumbles, you're still the best client, and just little things like that. I love being creative in my marketing. I don't want it to be cringe and I want my clients to appreciate it and I want them to expect it. I want them to always know that, like, may is going to take care of me and like, if I send her someone, she'll take care of them, and so those types of things. We have a really great newsletter we send out every month.
Speaker 1:We'll gets it, and you motivated me to start doing one, and mine doesn't look. Mine, mine's like a two and yours is a 10. But I mean, I'm still getting, hopefully, a lot of open rates. I don't know if you ever figured that out, but but but yeah, you said you'd wanted red receipt emails.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got them too.
Speaker 1:I, there was a glitch in the system and I was showing them how, how like easy it is to send it from like our CRM. And then I was like, see, I'm going to send you guys three of them right now. And then they're all sitting there and I get like they read it, and they clearly hadn't read it and I was just like.
Speaker 1:I was like wait, this is what's motivating me to do this newsletter, but it's I'm telling you, thank you, because you are a huge part of the reason why I started doing it why I started doing it.
Speaker 4:Well, that's a huge topic too for me. As far as like the activity, that where you need to start right. Like so, many people want to have a 10 level newsletter before they'll even start sending one.
Speaker 1:What's that thing that you said about Grant Cardone?
Speaker 4:Massive imperfect action when, when somebody comes to me, a loan officer, I've literally had a loan officer, a new loan officer, walk in the door, maybe not working for us, and they say what do I need to do? And I have like two minutes to tell them. I say massive imperfect action. Don't wait till you know the program 100%. Don't wait till you have the perfect flyer, don't wait till you recorded the perfect video, just start. Just like start activity. You can work on quality over time, right, but right now, just put your first video out there. I don't care if you recorded it in your car. Right now, send your first newsletter. He literally whipped up a newsletter in like 17 seconds. He went to chat GPT and said create me a real, create me a newsletter for real estate agents. And it was like and he copied it and pasted it, put it on an email, sends it out Okay.
Speaker 2:And so here's where I want to say that is the wrong thing to do, okay.
Speaker 1:And so here's where I want to say that is the wrong thing to do.
Speaker 2:That was when I was showing them. I mean, you can tell so we, we've perfected it over time. But here's the thing no one wants to hear just about lending. No one just wants to hear about that. And in my newsletter there's only one section that gives a market update and everything else is geared towards local businesses. Things to do with your kids Um, like Christmas, we did like perfect shopping for you know, your kids gifts and things like that.
Speaker 2:So we're providing so much more information than just real estate. I don't think my clients want to hear about real estate every month. I think they want to hear about what I've been up to restaurants I would recommend. You know, we do events once a month that you can literally just click through and add to your calendar and it shows you events for all of Tulsa. Um, I just want to provide some something else that keeps people engaged.
Speaker 1:I love that. I do agree with that. And then, going back to um, what you were saying about massive imperfect action is a lot of the times people see people that are already doing. Let's say, when I met Alfredo, the reason why I got connected with him is because he was the number one loan officer in Tulsa and I was like I want to meet this guy, I want to pick his brain, and it's hard to picture Alfredo and the story that he shared a lot of times, that when he made the transition from his previous company to where he was at at the time, that he pretty much lost everything and I I just can't picture that meeting with the number one loan officer in Tulsa. And at that point I look at you, people look at me and they're like I just can't picture, may or will not.
Speaker 1:Being good at video, good at social media, well, on on my podcast that we're, we're on, we're like at 80 episodes. If you go back, alfredo and I did the very first episode. We sat down, had an amazing conversation, we we go back and it's like the camera stopped recording at 30 minute conversation.
Speaker 4:And you have one of those plants. See that plant, that tree over there, Like you have one of those in the background. It's just like super cringe.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it looks nothing like this. And then, and then we had a 30 minute conversation and then I'm like man, that was really good. And then we go and it was like it only recorded 10 minutes. And then we're like, oh crap, like what are we going to do? If you go back to the very number one episode, I posted that 10 minute video and the amount of messages I got they were like hey, uh, the video cut off and I was like, yeah, that's, that's it, but that's my first episode there.
Speaker 4:Well, not only that, you have to really check your ex, your like expectations. Like you, like I said, you go out of your comfort zone, you do this thing that you don't normally do, and you put all this thought into it and you finally have the guts to do it. And you do it. And you, for some reason, you just expect everybody to like, watch it and like comment on it and have a thousand likes on it. And then you like had 72 views or something and you got to keep going through. You got to keep going.
Speaker 2:My number one piece of advice for realtors, or anyone really starting out on growing their business on social media, would be to turn off your notifications.
Speaker 1:And who taught you that, by the way?
Speaker 2:That would be me, Will Gomez.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm I don't know. I was like hanging out with her and her phone's, like every like and I'm like or every comment and all stuff, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, that would. That's like driving me insane right now. Like, how are you doing that?
Speaker 2:No, and I have it's dopamine. You like, you liked it at the time, but it was a mental problem Like it. It really consumed me. I was on social media way too much. Just seeing the updated count and now not getting those notifications has been so relaxing. And you get on and you're like, ooh, I got this many likes, like it's so good. But I've told so many, so many influencers honestly to just stop turn it off, like you don't need to know. Don't freak out about the number. Who cares?
Speaker 4:It's crazy how that works. Uh, I had you know how you get those birthday like on Facebook. Everybody's like happy birthday, happy birthday, and in your mind you're like those aren't real, like they get a notice, and then so there's a lot of people that just do it and whatever, and I didn't think they had any effect on me, right? Well, one, this last birthday that I had, I got like three. No, alfredo, that's so sad, I know, I know I got like three and I'm just like man. I must, I must kind of be like me. It wasn't very many, right? You normally get like a, like a ton of them and I'm like man.
Speaker 4:I guess I need to tell more people happy birthday, like what's the deal. And it kind of like bothered me a little bit. I wouldn't admit it to anybody at the time. Well, all of a sudden, my birthday is on January 1st, january 17th. I start to get a ton of them and I'm like Facebook got hacked, they changed my date, yeah and so, and so I realized what happened and I felt silly, but I realized how much even even something as like trivial as as somebody sending me happy birthday like it affects you, like it matters. So you have to really check yourself on, like. If I post a video, I have to decide that I'm not going to let it affect me how many likes it gets or how many views it gets.
Speaker 2:So I have a question. Are you guys the happy birthday Facebook people that I tell people happy birthday.
Speaker 1:I used to be, I don't. I'm not anymore.
Speaker 4:I don't. I don't do it on a consistent, like every once in a while. If I get on there and I see somebody, I know I'll do it, and then I'll go ahead and go to that reminder page and just go happy birthday, happy birthday, which isn't very significant, honestly, if I'm admitting it Right. But no, it would be the answer.
Speaker 2:I'm not either.
Speaker 1:So I used to be because I used to think. I used to think.
Speaker 4:I thought there was this big lesson in punchline.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to know if I wasn't the only one.
Speaker 1:I thought I was about to get some wisdom on that. No, I used to think that way. I used to think like man. I got to tell every person happy birthday. So when they think of me, they think of loans.
Speaker 4:I will say this there is a direct correlation with how many birthday happy birthdays you get, with how many happy birthdays you give.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Well, I am a big proponent. What's the word?
Speaker 4:Proponent, we know what you mean.
Speaker 2:Of a personal text message Happy birthday, yeah, like well, I'm sorry, I'm not doing it on social.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing it for everybody, but every single morning, before I get on the cold plunge, I do go to Facebook and check whose birthday it is, to see if, like hey, that's a person that I haven't talked to in a while, I'm going to send them a birthday message Someone not on Facebook who? Has a birthday. Oh yeah, cause nobody's going to know that's a birthday.
Speaker 4:I know how that feels. That's, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Sam is not on Facebook.
Speaker 4:You know what I like to do, that we might try Like. So our CRM tells us when somebody's birthday is and it tells you, like tomorrow's birthdays. I like to call and say hey, I know I'm cheating, but I want to be the first one to call you on your birthday and so, and so am I the first, and they'll always go. Yeah, well, I mean it's the day before because, like I said, now that everybody gets alerted, it's not that big a deal to call someone on their birthday, but to call them the day before.
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:So, in this topic, something I wanted to bring it back to is that you said 95% of my business is referrals, 40% of it comes to social media. A big thing that people don't realize is that if you're starting to do video, if you're starting to be active on social media, doesn't mean that a bunch of people are going to reach out to you and say hey, I want you to be my lender, I want you to be my realtor, and it's this random person that you don't know. That can happen. You and I are under contract right now on a guy that actually reached out to me and her separately, which it was kind of crazy and just like coincidence. Yeah, wow. And then would you agree that a lot of the times, most of those leads aren't actually very good. So both of us were kind of like hey, we're willing to help this guy, but, like you know, the chances of a converting are like 5%, which, by the way, just check your conversion rate 40, 41% from the stuff she sends. Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 4:Big money, baby I got to clap on that, okay. So let me ask you this from from a perspective of like a lender realtor relationship Do you filter them somehow some way before you send them? Are you just like?
Speaker 2:Oh, no I. They are good leads.
Speaker 4:I know, but I'm saying like, when you get an inquiry on Facebook or or on Instagram or wherever do you like say, well, do you have a job? Well, do you. Or do you just say, hey, well, this guy wants to buy.
Speaker 2:So I have systems in place. Once again, will Calendly is the greatest thing ever. So good, yeah, it is. I actually just had a phone consultation with a new buyer before I came in here today and I like to talk with them and kind of see a what they're looking for, what their timeline is. I always ask do you have a local lender, Like who do you plan to use? And they usually tell me by then I mean, they are well-qualified. They usually in the description put like what they do and all that Um, and in this case she was like, yes, we have someone. And I'm like okay, great, If not, let me send you my favorite local lender, Will Gomez.
Speaker 4:Cool. Do you feel that your content is conducive to getting that quality of of a client number one, and are you intentional about that Number two?
Speaker 2:That's a good one, yes.
Speaker 4:On number one.
Speaker 2:On number one. I do think that my content is getting those good.
Speaker 4:And then is it on purpose, is it designed that way? Yes, okay, how so?
Speaker 2:Because I I think someone um working with someone who knows the area and is good about posting about real estate is always showing like the next houses that are available in certain price ranges. We're getting responses back on that. Today I just posted some newly listed stuff on my stories and every person that responded I counted as a lead.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and this is an exaggerated example, but I kind of think like if you're doing a review at Mahogany's as compared to doing a review at McDonald's, you know that's going to bring a different viewer than this one over here. So you're typically are reviewing trendy areas, neighborhoods, where they're trending at certain price ranges. That you want to be.
Speaker 2:I really feel I have not gotten an organic lead from social media that has not panned out. Wow, and that insane. That's insane and I and I I don't get even ones that I filtered out and said, no, this is not a real lead, like truly every single person I've talked to about potentially doing something has done it. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Hmm, that is the way that she does it, though. It is really interesting, though, because I will normally majority of maze leads come in as just random, Like she'll tell me, she'll tell me now, but before it was just like a random call, like hey, may told me to call you, Great, Okay, Um, I will say everybody does remember your name, Cause, everybody, whenever you get a lead from an agent, um, sometimes they're like I forgot who sent me, and that's like the worst Cause we're like well, I don't, we don't know who to attach this lead to. Um, and then she would be like hey, this person's going to call you. So we add that lead before they call us. But they always call, and then she'll be like hey, be a lead. And I literally upload that for her to reminder on that. Hey, what's going on with this?
Speaker 1:So that conversion is with leads like that, because I'm not deleting those leads, Like I'm archiving it if those leads don't pan out. But then I go, hey, let's try to do like a text thing. And then she tried that for a little bit. She goes I just don't feel like this is me. So then we went back to the regular thing and that's. That goes to say whatever you're doing, make sure that you feel comfortable and you and you feel like it's something that's working for you. Because if it's like me going back to social media, like trying to do dancing TikTok videos, I'm going to be so, I'm going to feel so like weird and it's not me and it's not.
Speaker 1:Therefore, it's not going to equal to good results on that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, if it's an energy sucker for you, you're not going to do it. Right, like some people talk about, like, well, don't work when you're at home, right, like on a Saturday, don't you know? Try to separate work from home. But there's certain things that I do at work that, like, I don't mind doing at all.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:Right, like if a client calls and I'm not doing anything, why not answer the phone and answer their questions, I mean? And so that's how social media works? I was like you need to. You need to start adding things to your business that don't really suck your energy.
Speaker 1:And any lenders that are that are listening to this right now. This is actually a great lesson that there's a lot of lenders out there whether you're a low producing lender or a top producer that they they want. They're like I want every single agent I work with to send me this is how you need to be sending me leads, and it's like not everybody works works the same Like, because out of all the agents that we work with, all these leads come in and different ways.
Speaker 2:Well, and I have to give props to you.
Speaker 2:I think you and I, that's consistently working with you is wonderful, because I'm constantly getting reminded about leads that may or may not have gotten forgotten in the pipeline or they were just a touch point that was just like, oh, I totally forgot about them. You help keep me on track and I really appreciate that, and I think that's what's so important about having a relationship with your lender and probably why we do so much business together because we just have such a dynamic and we know exactly like what the next steps are and working with each other and you know not only that, it's built, it's building both of your guys's future pipeline right.
Speaker 4:Like so many, agents and lenders alike live in the next 30 to 60 days and that's it. That's like what their processes are built for, whereas right now, you guys could have a handful of leads that are going to close six months from now, 12 months from now, two years from now.
Speaker 2:Pipeline business is the best business.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. So, one of the things that people are it's kind of crazy to me when people get into sales and they're like, well, I don't want to go door knocking, I don't want a cold call, I don't want to do any of this because I because of the fear of rejection. But you're telling me that that that's been your biggest hurdle. That whenever you know, we asked like, hey, what's been your biggest obstacle? And you just put rejection and people when they look at you, I don't think that they see that at all so on in sales and social media.
Speaker 2:Tell me how you overcame that and tell me a little bit about like, about your experience with rejection I think rejection and more so friends not wanting to use me, clients firing me, that type of rejection is it hurts, really bad and I still like mourn, that loss of not being able to help friends and who know I'm capable and all that. So I don't't cold call, I don't door knock, I choose not to do that, so I have to fill my, my marketing with other things, right, um, I feel like this is I don't door knock, and I don't do that because I have a fear of rejection.
Speaker 2:I really do. You know, I get social anxiety.
Speaker 1:So let me correct that. I said that you door knock. What's the thing that you do when you go to neighborhoods and you? You just pop by, so that's what you do, sorry, okay, I just wanted to clarify that.
Speaker 2:I mean, and if I see a client I'll talk to him. At most of the time I'm just leaving it at the front door and they'll shoot me a rejection. And I think, like I, I just choose not to do things that promote that and I do other things that work for me. They're more my style, they're more my client style, and that does well.
Speaker 4:And that's what's crazy. If you watch your social media, there's assumptions made by me and anyone else that that, like you're fearless, right, like you're willing to do anything, any video. But it's not true. You have insecurities, you have fears, just like anyone else, but you choose to do those things anyways, right, right and I think that's where people need to get started is like don't wait until you're not afraid to do it, do it anyways, right, we.
Speaker 1:That's, that's the take the old take the stairs right, yes and uh.
Speaker 1:To finish up my thought on the whole thing that we just got a lead went under contract that just randomly reached out to us.
Speaker 1:Everybody that's wanting to do social media thinks like I'm doing it for that. But you have to realize that every time that you're scrolling on Facebook, if you're currently not creating content, and you're scrolling on Facebook and you see that somebody close on a home that you went to high school with, you went to college with um heck, there might be a family member that it's like a distant family member and they just closed on their home and they didn't use you and you're upset because they didn't use you. It's really not their fault. It's your fault because you're not staying top of mind. So whenever you start creating whatever type of content it is whether it's real estate stuff, whether it's burgers, whether it's influence and stuff, whatever it is you got to remember that you're doing that for your current already circle of people in your social media and that's going to be that 35% of people that are still considered the referrals that are still consider your COI, but they would have never close with you if it wouldn't have been for social media.
Speaker 2:I think that's kind of the point where I decided to merge. Everything was because I I wanted people to see me more than just in person. I wanted people to see me as a realtor. I was seeing friends closing with other people. I knew why. I knew because they I wasn't out there. I didn't tell him I was a realtor, that they went with someone else. And that was the point where I was like okay, I got to integrate this. Social media is the thing now. I mean, that is where people spend a lot of their time and if I'm able to be seen daily on there, people like Alfredo will think they know me. That's right, and you're going to feel more comfortable being like hey, hey, like, tell me about this, or you were doing marketing today and we have these conversations versus like how is society burger?
Speaker 4:How is district burger, Whatever yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um, I mean, really, people just need to start thinking of their social media as a portfolio, and the better. The longer your portfolio is, the more things you have, the more someone can look and see who you are before they reach out to you. And that's really what I've been working on is creating a portfolio that's filled with Tulsa, that's filled with real estate that people can always reference and feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think that something that you asked you were like why do you, why is it easier to refer a lender, why is it easier to get those quality leads? And I think it goes back to like this is you guys' second time ever meeting and you've you feel like you know her. And I feel like people tell me that about me all the time. Because think about somebody that that's in this office that says, hey, alfredo, you should go get a haircut at this place.
Speaker 1:That's going to have way more, much, much more weight in persuading you than if a client that you did alone with that they're like, hey, yeah, you should they come. And you're like, hey, I that you did a loan with that. They're like, hey, yeah, you should they come. And you're like, hey, I had to go get a haircut, you got to try this lady out. And you're like, yeah, yeah, but. But then it's like you just met that person one time. Sure, you're doing their loan. You're probably never going to see them again. So with May, they even though in her video she's not saying like, do do your, let me list your home, let me be your realtor, use my lender, but them, just seeing her, they, they feel closer with her, and then they're like they feel more persuaded to whatever she says Well, they trust me.
Speaker 4:Exactly. There's studies on this, like I saw a study of like brain surgeons, like people choosing their brain surgeon. That's crazy. That's a big deal. They're much more likely to choose the brain surgeon that he'd been seeing on billboards. That doesn't make him a better brain surgeon. That makes him a good marketer, right.
Speaker 2:I just scheduled a consultation for a tummy tuck and I went with the guy on social media Seriously and I like I can't even tell you why I just know him and it's very intimidating to me and the fact that I've been able to see him and see his work makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's insane. Something that I love is that the best person is not going to win Like so, the best mechanic, the best lender, the best realtor, the best doctor, they're not going to win, the best known in each industry, because if we're not from here and after this podcast, we're like all right, guys, let's go to lunch and we say what's it? And we don't know the area. What is the first thing we're going to do?
Speaker 2:Go to social media.
Speaker 1:We're going to pull our phone out and then we're going to be like yeah, or Yelp, or Google or whatever, and let's say that right across the street, the new restaurant that's about to be open, let's say that that is the best restaurant around. We can literally walk across the street, but if our phone is telling us to go a mile South, a mile North, we're going to go there, even though we're missing, even though the best thing is right in front of us. But because of the influence that social media and the internet have, it's crazy. That's what truly motivates me, honestly.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 4:I want to shift gears just a little bit. You mentioned that you have really depended on learning from others, as you, as you were early in your career. Who or what did you learn from those people? Um, to me you know me and Will have talked to this about this a lot is you need to quit using trial and error to build your business right Like it's somebody. Whatever you're trying to do, somebody else is already doing it or has done it or has done it at a high level, and there's so much you can learn and everybody's always willing to help. If you ask, who have you learned from in the past and what did you learn, is always willing to help.
Speaker 2:If you ask, yep, who have you learned from in the past and what did you learn? Well, I think you're never too good to take trainings and I definitely am always down for a training and really other real estate agents in other States, I mean, those are my number one people to follow. I I've gotten a ton of my. I mean, none of my ideas are original, none of them. They've all been done and I've seen how well they do and I just recreate them for myself. Um, the way they do marketing, the way they do social media videos, the way they post about new listings, like all of that stuff has already been done. I just have some key people I really enjoy following that I replicate.
Speaker 4:And so that you're talking about like you just straight up follow them on social media and that's where you get. You're not like calling them up and saying, hey, what are you doing in that market.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 2:But I think I can figure it out and I absolutely love when people reach out to me asking questions like that and I, I that's definitely somewhere I would like to be where people are like I want to replicate what she's doing and use me as inspiration, because I do the same thing and I'm not afraid to say it. I mean, I follow some kick-ass realtors that I'm just like wow, they are doing 25, 30 million by themselves and I, I want to do that.
Speaker 4:I think when you start believing that you have all the best ideas and these ideas are yours and you don't want to, I think that's when you stop growth right. Because, there's always something bigger and better that you're out there for you to learn and grow in.
Speaker 1:Or when you start believing that you do need to come out with an absolutely original idea to be able to like, reinvent the wheel, to do something.
Speaker 1:That's whenever people get stuck as well.
Speaker 1:I, you, came to that um mastermind training that we, we watched um in that conference room and, uh, mo, one of the guys that was speaking, he, he, he was talking about how he's like it everything. And I read that book like everything's a remix, because even if we all three do, let's say, a script of the same video, if, if we own that and put our own twist to it, it's going to be different, coming from all three of us, and people aren't. People aren't necessarily going to watch and be like, oh, may and Alfredo and will did the same exact video. They're, they're most likely, if anything, going to scroll past mine, going to scroll past Alfredo's and then and then maybe receive it better from you than both of us or vice versa. Right, but people get so scared of like, well, I don't want to do this because everybody's doing it and I want to come up with my own original idea and it's like you're going to be in that, in that place for a while and I think that's a good point too is you have to change.
Speaker 2:You're always evolving and my social media I used to do videos, like you did well, and that really wasn't my style. I didn't feel comfort in that and I've evolved and I've changed, and every day I'm trying to do something new, something different, to stay ahead of the game, and I think that's what you have to do to see results.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. A hundred percent. You have to and you have to be able to like it. I'm so glad you did that because last time I'll bring up Steven. I did the talking head videos with him and he hated it and but I wouldn't be able to do those videos he does Like I don't know if I would enjoy it, but may I really appreciate coming on. Um, I'm I'm excited to. Honestly, I don't usually listen back to like our podcast. I don't know if you do, do you A little, not rarely, but I would say like not even 10%, but I think I'm going to go back and listen to this one because I really enjoyed the conversation and this is coming from somebody that talks to you just about every day. So some great stuff, uh. But, alfredo, anything else, I'm super glad you came on.
Speaker 4:No, that's it. This is a May West and she's the real deal. Thank you for coming on me, thanks.